Honors Senior, geology major and Chancellor's Scholar Devin Hoffman has won the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) award! Devin received the award for graduate research at any accredited university. Given his exemplary work in Honors at Appalachian, he had many options. He has decided to attend Virginia Tech University where he will pursue his doctorate in the Department of Geosciences with Dr. Sterling Nesbitt as his advisor.
Shown in photograph here, Devin is conducting research for his Honors thesis at North Carolina State University veterinary hospital.
Devin's funding at Virginia Tech includes a total of five years, beginning in August of 2017. His GRFP award will cover three years, paying his yearly stipend, all educational costs, and additional resources for international travel and research. For an additional two years at Virginia Tech, he will be fully funded on a teaching assistantship towards the completion of his Ph.D.
Devin's research will focus on the link between mass extinctions and vertebrate evolution. Specifically he will examine how the end-Permian and end-Triassic mass extinctions impacted archosaurs (birds, crocodiles, and their relatives) and cynodonts (ancestors of mammals).
Congratulations, Devin on this amazing opportunity! We look forward to hearing about all your future successes.
Story by Garrett Alexandrea McDowell, Ph.D.
Photo contributed by Devin Hoffman
